Looking for Part 55558 47010 glove compartment door reinforcement

I deinstalled the blower, dismantled its box and cleaned everything incl. every blade of the fan. (The blades were all black like that black in the blades corner on the foto.)

It's a horrible job to take it out and to set it in place again where it was. Much more difficult than it looks in the manual. It always gets stuck somewhere. Lots of moving back and forth and turning it this side and that side, and retrying and so on till it's out… And what I found inside the aircondition was not cause for rejoicing.

The cuts weren't so easy to make either.
And to reach some of the screws, I'm lucky that I have that variety of screwdrivers, lengtheners and some stick with a magnet on its end.

 

I made all that because I noticed a unique odor that is difficult to describe. I noticed that odor also in my first car, a Skoda Fabia from 2000 I bought in 2013 that obviously had been parked outside all the time.. I think it's the smell of old vegetation like leaves and bugs, organic stuff and so on rotting in places where it's difficult to clean.

So, to begin with, on the Prius I deinstalled the wipers to clean the dirty little grids (see pictures) and the place underneath where there was some grey-black sludge that had amassed over the years (see pictures). I smelled the dirty grids before cleaning and I thought I was on the right track with my guess about the source of that strange odor comming from the airing.

After that cleaning, the odor remained so there was another source I had to find, obviously the AC's evaporator.
Though, that odor never matched the descriptions I heard about the smell of dirty ACs. I was told that it smells like worn socks or earthy, moldy or so.
For me, the smell is somewhat spicy and salty... very difficult to describe. Definitely not like worn socks.

So, to access the AC the blowerbox has to be deinstalled. And to do it properly I just cleaned that part inside out too just to be sure everything that can be cleaned is really cleaned.

The most difficult if not impossible part is the evaporator. I tried to reach the visible dirt with a brush and with a vacuum cleaner and it didn't work out really well.

Then I sprayed some desinfectant from Liqui-Moly. Unfortunately that desinfectant was so old, that it's citrus-odor was no longer noticeable. I think, the desinfecting agent (bronopol) in that product is still good. Took on a mask and sprayed some, less than recommended, because I have no ventilation where I do that work.. And I don't want to stay for too long in these fumes even with a mask. After desinfecting the evaporator, it must be dryed.

To dry it: Set the air nozzles wheel on the nozzles of the leg-room, turn on the blower on full power, heater on full power, engine on, air-circulation on and AC off. Leave it so for 20min at least.

If the step of drying is skipped, that may be dangerous. I forgot it and after some driving I began to feel unwell, sort of dizzy and tired. I immediately went home and found out, that I can do something about the fumes from the residues of the desinfectant by drying the evaporator...

So! Did it help? Yes, after one day, that strange odor was gone. I still smell the odor of the desinfectant.
But! There is a but... after some time, a few days ago, I noticed that strange odor comming back when I have the AC on...
My explanation is, that the dirt in and on the evaporator gets wet when the AC is on.. And then with the desinfectant vanishing over time it begins to smell noticeably more than when it's dry.

My next step is to re-do the process, next time with a new, fresh desinfectant, somewhere outside and with the recommended ammount of desinfectant. I'm looking for the desinfectant from Tunap for the next time. But I have to find a shop that is buying it for me. It's not available for retailing.

So it's all for the odor's sake and not for the cooling, volume of air, airflowspeed or so.

(As for the cabin-air-filters, I use charcoal filters and I replace them once or twice a year. They are not the source of the smell.)

 

I have an ozone generator from A2Z ozone, it's a US based company. It's powerful but I discovered that the parts inside I can just order on Aliexpress if I need some spare parts. And it generates ozone with a corona-discharge tube. This way of generating ozone also creates a strong smell I have read somewhere.

And though it eliminates odors, it can also create new ones when generating cleavage products. The right dosage is difficult as it reacts with so many materials like leather and plastics, damaging them. Once I left the generator work for hours and then the leather steering wheel of the car had a sticky coat on it.. (removed it with hand desinfectant based on alcohol) And on the synthetic seats I noticed a shine that was not there before, I am sure. Fortunately it was just a very old mercedes taxi, not my car.

So, to come to the point, I tried to eliminate the initial odor by sticking the ozonegenerators tube in the air intake before the blower and it did not work out as expected. But that is normal as it can't permanently remove odors that come from substantial residues as they are in the evaporators case.

The smell of the desinfectant itself is barely noticeable, not penetrant or so.. so, no need for the ozone on that one.

I can't see any links of the mentioned ozone generators.